Remodeling kitchen advice

My wife and I are looking to remodel our kitchen. We cook 6 nights a week, so it is definitely more of a workshop than museum/fashion statement. ont eh other hand, it is a fairly small house and the floorplan means you see the kitchen from living room and dining area.We know we need to switch out/upgrade our countertops. The person we spoke to said while quartz looks nice, it stains easil. Any experience?We'll also need an upgraded dw, fridge, and range. They had an absoultely lovely Bertozzini range. Anyone had some experience? I doubt we have room (or budget) for sub-zero fridge. Any suggestions on smaller sized appliances?Finally - what flooring do my my fellow hounds prefer. Att eh moment, we have vinyl. We are thinking either Pergo or cork. Any experience welcome.

You should sign up to gardenweb.com and go to the kitchen forums on the Home site. I couls not have renovated my kitchen without them. The people who frequent the site are smart, experienced and knowledgable. And they're TKO (totally kitchen obsessed) so there are frequent, numerous posts and responses.Really, they're wonderful.

We recently remodeled our kitchen and used the gardenweb kitchen forum extensively. They really know there stuff and give great advice. There is also a separate appliance forum where people can give you advice regarding the appliances you are interested in (although they will do this in the kitchen forum as well.)

The kitchen forum is primarily about design and layout of a kitchen for efficient use of space and to help it function best as a place for cooking.

If you upload a plan of your space, let them know a bit about your family and personal habits, they will guide you well. I did this and couldn't be more thrilled with how my kitchen functions. I good friend that cooks more extensively than I do, along with lots of canning, jam making, and serious baking, used my kitchen once and was just gushing about how much better it worked than her own.

There is also a Finished Kitchen Blog used by members of the forum to show off what has been accomplished in their space and to give others design ideas.

I've seen them help anyone from single folks in small NYC apartments to farm families with 8 kids. It is truly a worthwhile place for kitchen help.

When we remolded the kitchen on our previous home, we went with a Kitchenaid bottom freezer refrigerator. We were quite happy with it and would consider it again on our new home. One feature about it we liked is it did not have a water\ice dispenser on the door. Ugly and takes up space.

For a small space, a French door fridge is the way to go, no question. The doors, when open, intrude into the kitchen space only half as much as a standard fridge. A side-by-side would do the same thing, but at higher energy costs.

I agree with mike0989 about in-door water/ice dispensers. We don't have one. Our French door fridge has the icemaker in the upper left area of the freezer, where it takes up very little room and is easy to access. We have an inline water filter hooked up to the icemaker hose from the wall. It's very simple to slide the fridge out twice a year for filter changing.

I, too, cook 6 nights/week and my 5-year-old Cambria quartz countertops have nary a stain. Splashed juice all over one area last weekend while seeding pomegranates -- no stains. I've never heard of quartz staining. You might want to consult a different countertop person.

The advice you've gotten doesn't sound right. Most quartz products even tout their stain resistance in comparison to granite and other stone/cement products. Several homes in my area have quartz, and no one's ever complained about stains even on the white/light-colored installations. Anything can be stained under the right conditions. Almost all stains need time to set so a quick wipe pretty much eliminates staining from sealed and non-porous surfaces.

As to your redo, the GE Profile line of products are stylish yet very functional. I have GE fridge (albeit I did go for a Monogram model because I liked that it's full stainless, not just on the front), a stainless dual-oven stove, and an upgraded stainless hood vent.

You can get sealed granite at a decent price by simply visiting the granite yards and going with a reputable fabricator and installer. The guy who did my work used to subcontract for some of the big box stores - the price difference was about 50% cheaper when the big box store is cut out.

I didn't do my floor (wish I had), but I'll probably just do wood because it's durable and versatile. I looked at cork, but I just prefer a hardwood's durability.

I must disagree on the Monogram. Unless they've upgraded their ice maker (ours had a rust problem because it wasn't true stainless) and fixed a few other glitches in the past 10 years, I'd look at another line. During the 11 years we owed our Monogram, we had service people out 5 times. We now live in a house with a 15 year old Sub-Zero, and neither we nor the previous owners ever had a problem with it.

On the other hand, we had GE Profile Performance appliances (fridge, cooktop and dishwasher) for 8+ years and only needed the plastic water line on the fridge replaced once as it dried out and cracked. No other service calls. Our Subzero's fans broke down after 3 years, which Wolf recommended we simply disconnect and not replace since they're a problem. We also get some ice buildup in the freezer.

I loved my GE Profile gas range. It had a brushed SS top that was a breeze to clean. Not as easy as a smoothtop electric, to be sure. But much easy then the normal porcelain found on gas ranges, and the brushed finish didn't show scratches like the Jenn-Air pro-style I used for a while. Who puts a mirror finish on a cooktop, for crying out loud?